Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Published: October 14, 2026
Marriott hosted their second official Bonvoy Member Day on Monday October 12th at their corporate HQ and wow, they really put on a show! Members who attended got to hear from leaders across the organization including CEO Tony Capuano; Chairman of the Board David Marriott; Chief Human Resources Officer Ty Breland; SVP of Global Customer Engagement Centers Frid Edmond; and many more senior leaders throughout the day.
What is Marriott Bonvoy Member day?
This was an all-day event where a handful of Marriott Bonvoy members across all tiers of elite status (from just regular members to Ambassadors) are invited to learn more about Marriott’s customer-focused initiatives and to help provide feedback to senior leadership.
We saw up and coming innovations that Marriott is working on and learned about them directly from the senior teams that were responsible for making it happen! We were also provide feedback to C-Suite level management and group leaders across the entire organization. Apparently there were less than 150 attendees and I’m sure thousands applied to be able to attend. I was fortunate to be able to attend just as a member and was not invited as media.
Apologies for how dry this post might sound. Attending the all-day event gave me flashbacks to my corporate days where I would attend these all-day company events and then summarize what we learned for investors.
So, let’s get into it!
The highlights
- View your queue on the upgrade list. Currently in beta testing at ~100 North American hotels, you will be able to see your position on a waitlist for a potential room upgrade.
- Ask Bonvoy AI tool is here. Marriott-native AI tool to help make it easier to search, plan, and book your next trip.
- An elevated Bonvoy Lounge experience. Rolling out in 100+ Asia-Pacific hotels in February 2027 and another 200+ across Greater China sometime in early 2027.
Table of contents
- Upgrade list coming
- Ask Bonvoy AI tool and digital enhancements
- Elevated Bonvoy Lounge rollout coming to Asia
- Marriott playing into current customer trends
- How to get invited to the next Marriott Bonvoy Member Day?
Upgrade list coming
A few days before Members Day, I started to see some posts and pictures online that people could view where they were in relation to others for a potential room upgrade.
Marriott confirmed that this is a new feature that is currently in beta testing at ~100 hotels in North America and will expand to 250+ hotels next month!
This is quite an interesting feature and I am curious how it will play out. On one hand, it will be cool to see what your position is for a potential upgrade on an upcoming stay unless you’re quite far down the list!! But on the other hand, it may create unrealistic expectations as guest count and list priority can change quickly and up until the last minute if that Ambassador makes the last-minute booking. From a hotel perspective, I am curious if it will positively or negatively impact bookings as people may change where they stay up until the cancellation policy to maximize a chance of an upgrade.
Ask Bonvoy AI tool and digital enhancements
Yeah, cool, another AI tool to worry about. I’m a bit fatigued by all the AI stuff coming out, but this one seems quite useful. You can utilize Ask Bonvoy on desktop or the mobile and ask for help planning a weekend getaway, information about hotels you plan to stay at like if they have a pool and what are their hours, how to use “x” amount of points for a “y” type stay, or get help planning activities for an upcoming stay.
Importantly, unlike other major AI tools, the Ask Bonvoy tool only pulls from internal Marriott sources, so there is much less chance of AI hallucination (when the AI tool just makes stuff up). Currently, it’s programmed to really focus on accuracy, so it will only provide an answer if it knows an answer and let you know if it doesn’t know. The tool is still relatively new (I believe they said it launched for everyone within the last week or two) but I am excited to test out this new tool to plan my next trip.
Continued focus on digital enhancements
A lot of digital enhancements have already been launched earlier this year. I think one of the best ones is the ability to add those Marriott gift cards you have to be linked to your account. You can then easily view all the gift cards you have on the app or desktop when logged in. There is still room for improvement as you still have to show the digital gift card at the front desk to use them but in the future, we hope to be able to redeem them when booking online or through the app!
Another enhancement that got a lot of negative feedback at Member Day was the addition of corporate code verification via email. This launched in late September (Loyalty Lobby) to crack down on corporate code fraud (sorry Deloitte users!!) but many well-traveled members at Member Day noted this has created a lot of issues for them due to being contractors using client rates or having an different email domain than their parent company.
Another major area of feedback from members was the concept of a “real time folio” where you could view all your pending charges from restaurants, bars, spa, activities, and other “charge it to the room” spend. Those working on the digital side of things at Marriott hinted this was something they could be working on and may be more possible after a recent major IT upgrade that has actually helped people’s points post faster.
In fact, that IT upgrade across thousands of hotels has actually helped points post as fast as within 24 hours of a stay (one person mentioned it should be as fast as 4 hours but can be even faster). I actually noticed this with a recent stay where I got points and elite night credits posted to my account in less than an hour!
Elevated Bonvoy Lounge rollout coming to Asia
Coming in February 2027 to APAC & China! There are 300+ lounges planned to bring an elevated Lounge experience at select hotels. The lounge game in Asia is already significantly ahead of the US where M Club lounges have inconsistent hours (a common pain point provided by members on Monday) but Marriott wants to take it a step further in their fastest-growing region.
These Bonvoy Lounges will bring an elevated food and drink offering, which we were able to have a sneak peek of at Member Day. Some drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic include The Coral Pour, which is a wellness-inspired drink meant to help start your day. I tried the lychee version of the drink when I arrived which had lychee, lemongrass, and coconut water and was quite refreshing. When we left Member Day, there was a selection of elevated bites called Marriott Bonvoy Bites and looked like something you would eat as a canapé at a fancy wedding.
For US members, I didn’t get the sense this would be a realistic thing to roll out in the US, except maybe in the luxury tier of hotels. Economically, I just can’t see this happening at a large scale in the US due to staffing costs and the competitive landscape not requiring it.
Marriott playing into current customer trends
Like any good business, Marriott is evolving to meet current customer interests. This includes an increased focus on health & wellness, personalization, experiences, and luxury. Some of the in-person experiences around wellness were pretty funny. We saw the massage chairs that you can find at the mall but also some crazy looking spine realigner 9000 machine (it’s officially called Spinaline). There were also interactive member surveys asking how The Ritz-Carlton flag could help improve guest well-being and asked if we would be interested in sleep mask & amenities, red light masks, yoga matts, or workout equipment already placed in the room. The W was asking what type of food & beverage or wellness offerings they could add to improve your stay including healthier eating options and more non-alcoholic drink options. Overall, it is clear Marriott is proactively trying to reduce pain points for guests and improve the overall guest experience.
Within luxury and experiences, we attended a session asking our preferences on what type of experiences we would be interested in adding to our Luxury Collection stays. These ranged from the ability to book private or small group tours to local experiences like dining with a local family, meeting local artists, or learning about local architecture. With a K-shaped economy where the top levels are the biggest spenders, it’s clear Marriott wants to continue to move upscale and continue to add personalization to make stays more memorable.
How to get invited to the next Marriott Bonvoy Member Day?
Even my well-traveled friends asked me how I was able to attend. The answer is being chronically online 🙁 as I saw applications to attend posted in the Marriott Bonvoy Insiders Facebook group, I believe sometime in August. I put my application in and hoped for the best! This group is 300k+ strong and is managed by Marriott themselves so I’m sure thousands applied. Luckily, I am relatively local to Marriott’s HQ in Bethesda, MD so it was easy for me to attend after being picked. However, I met members who traveled from all over just to be there including people coming internationally! If you’re able to attend, it’s definitely worthwhile! There were some nice gifts handed out, but importantly, it’s really neat to be able to shape the future of Marriott.
Oh, when Tony was asked about Marriott Cobalt status, he just said “what is that?”
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